Up Late
by KroganVanguard
Summary: Shepard and Tali work together late into tonight. Inspired by a prompt about a smart/brilliant Shepard on the KinkMeme, and also to be found there. Minifill. Set during ME2.


Shepard was up late, Tali noticed. The rest of ship's mess was deserted in the quiet down-shift, lights dimmed except where he sat quietly poring over something on a pad. She grinned to herself inside her helmet.

"Hey Shepard, how was Bekenstein?"

"Tali, hey. You know, the usual. Crashed a party, broke into a vault, killed some mercs, shot down a gunship. Kasumi's got some moves out in the field I tell you. You guys should get together sometime. Between our drones and her invisible-cloak, there's the potential to spread some serious carnage. And she was showing me her newest omni-tool addition. Flashbangs. All sorts of tactical potential there. Could use that to lock down and stun the serious firepower or to..."

Tali eased back in her chair and flexed her feet. This was Shepard in his element. Or one of them anyway. She had seen and worked with some of the finest combat specialists around in her time with the Fleet and outside it. Wrex had been an intimidating combination of muscle, firepower and biotic destruction. Garrus opted for stealth and lethality, preferring to strike from afar and the shadows. Even she'd improved some since the disaster on Freedom's Progress- Kal had been a good role model. But Shepard...Shepard existed on another level. In the field he was all instinct and improvisation, seeing angles and ambushes that no else could. He'd be a step ahead of what the enemy wanted to do, force them to react how he wanted them to react. Off the field, in his spare time, he was analysis and breakdown. Nothing else mattered but making sure that he got the job done and that his people got out alive. Like he'd gotten her out alive back on the Citadel. She was glad for the fact that the helmet hid the fact that she couldn't stop staring at his piercing green eyes. But he'd stopped talking. Ahh, he'd noticed that she was in her own little dream-world.

"Why are you still up Tali? I know Mordin's running some experiments in the lab but the rest of us need our beauty sleep."

"You don't...uh its hot in here. Have you read the latest issue of the Quarian Journal of Drone Engineering?"

Shepard lets slip one of his devastating half-smiles, and Tali felt her heart skip a beat. But he let her change the topic, as clumsy as her attempt had been. Really, she needed to keep a better grip on herself. From what Garrus had told her about Horizon, she had but the faintest inkling of hope that Shepard and Ashley were finished. But that didn't mean she could hope for anything between her and Shepard.

"Nope. Why don't you forward it to me now. Anything interesting?"

"Well, there was this one article. Mara'Hun vas Besrenz nar Qaddayi is one of the flotilla's best researchers in the area. She thinks she's found a way to squeeze higher shielding and more firepower from the same setup. It looked doable. I've been thinking of modifying Chiktikka along the lines she suggests. Figured you might want a look. Here, I'll forward it to you."

"Thanks. Hmm. Interesting. Yes, yes you could definitely get some more energy if you changed the capacitor-flux output there. Oh, I see how she's done the shielding output there. Could be, could be..."

There he went again, mind racing, as those brilliant green eyes focussed their laser-like intensity on the pad in front of him. She knew that he was always looking to improve his own drone's performance. She'd been shocked the first time she'd seen how fast and precise his was, much better than her Chiktikka, it pained her to admit. During their time together taking on Saren and his geth, his engineering expertise had seemed almost secondary, but this time around it shone like a beacon. She was better with ships, he'd be the first to admit, but he was definitely better in the field. The first time he'd unleashed his cryo and thermal omni-tool mini-grenades, she'd been shocked.

"Shepard, check out the schematic on the third page. She's managed to put the damage into overdrive, at the expense of reliability. Is it worth looking at?"

"Hmm? Yes, already seen. Too risky in field. Need drone to work every time. Damage output not as important as making sure it works when needed."

She hadn't told him yet, but times like this he reminded her of Mordin. Would he like the comparison? Maybe he wouldn't take it as a compliment. The two had their differences over their ethical issues regarding the genophage but had bonded instantly as only two minds that raced at similar speeds could. Of course their expertise lay in different areas, but Tali could picture Shepard retired someday, lecturing, holding his students to the same high standards he held his crew. If they survived all this of course. He ran his hand absently through his dark brown hair and Tali resisted the urge to follow it, run her own fingers through his hair.

"We could do it better, keep the damage output without lowering the reliability. Have to make sure there's a failsafe path, but I think it could be done. Just need to ensure the load remains steady instead of spiking, that's why hers kept having reliability issues. I could ask my father to ship us the right tools and components from the Flotilla."

"No need to bother him, he already let me have you. Uh, I mean us. The Normandy. Let the Normandy have you. I'm sure we can get whatever need here on the ship or from Illium or whatever. I see what you mean though. Here's a thought though. How about we use the spiking? Let the drone explode at the end, but make sure its near the enemy. We could time it so deliberately spiked when required, blowing up right in their faces. Yeah, yeah, let me just pull up my schematics here on the omni-tool. But keeping it calibrated could be an issue."

Tali tilted her head at the forward battery.

"We should ask the expert."

"Heh. Check if he's awake, wants some part of this impromptu design session."

Tali quirked a smile at Shepard. This manic energy of his came out of nowhere at times but the man had some brilliant ideas when he was in the grip of them. She definitely needed Garrus's helpt on this one though. She commed him through his omni-tool.

"Shepard's having one of his genius moments. Wants to re-design drones to explode. We need calibration expert. Want in?"

"Sure, wasn't sleeping anyway. In the mess? Any dextro-snacks around?"

"Yes and don't know. Come find out for yourself."

Shepard glanced up, eyes twinkling. She blushed inside her suit despite herself. Thankfully Garrus would be around to distract Shepard from how she was acting.

"So Shepard, if you do want to make it explode, how will you overcome the issue with the..."


End file.
